Why do the Irish wear blue and not green on St Patrick's Day?

Answer 1

Not true. They wear green or orange. About 500 years ago William of Orange, a Catholic noble was at war with the Protestant Irish. His troops wore Orange and the Irish wore green. Up to this day the Catholic in Ireland wear orange and the Protestant green. This difference through the centuries has been the cause of much of "troubles" in Ireland.

Answer 2

The question as posed makes three problematic underlying assumptions: firstly, that Jews are a monolith who all follow the same cultural practices, secondly, that St. Patrick is an American Cultural Tradition as opposed to a Catholic Tradition, and thirdly, that Jews should actively engage in American Civic Culture.

1) Jews are by no means all the same. There are a number of Secular or Reform Jews in the United States who enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day and wear green just as the Irish Americans do. Some Conservative Jews and a number of Orthodox Jews do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a very open way for the following reasons.

2) St. Patrick's Day is the celebration of a Catholic Miracle, the ridding of the snakes from Ireland by way of Divine Power as manifest in one individual. The Irish have turned it into a cultural celebration of national identity, but its foundation still remains profoundly Catholic and not American. (This is as opposed to the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving who have roots solely in the American National Tradition.) Many Jews do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day because they do not believe it is their duty to practice non-Jewish holidays in the same way that Catholics do not find it proper to fast on Ramadan or blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

3) Many Jews in the Orthodox Movement do not embrace American Cultural Institutions. For them, American Culture, while interesting, is not important to them whereas the religious and historical traditions of the Jewish people are. Therefore, they do not typically walk in parades for Thanksgiving and St. Patrick's Day and they do not perform other cultural acts such as lighting fireworks on the Fourth of July or watch the Ball Drop for the New Year. Even if St. Patrick's Day were an exclusively American Cultural Institution, which it is not, the Orthodox would not be interested in celebrating it for this reason.